


Mingyu's Guide to Art History

by fresh96



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: College AU, Existential Dread, M/M, Partying, Underage Drinking, everyone is smart and no one drops out stay in school kids, hard drugs, maybe more no spoilers, side SeokSoon, side jeongcheol, side verkwan - Freeform, typical college shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 17:18:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13885485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fresh96/pseuds/fresh96
Summary: Mingyu isn't used to this much partying. Minghao is.





	Mingyu's Guide to Art History

Mingyu usually considered himself a quick learner, if not a good student, so the giant red F staring back at him from his computer screen was shocking, to say the least. The essay, like every other essay he had written since the dawn of time, had been written at 11:20 pm two days prior with little preparation and a whole lot of bullshitting. Neither of these things had failed him in the past, despite all the words of warning from professors (“This isn't the type of essay you can start the night before it’s due!”) and yet, here he was. The comments on the essay were even more shocking than the final grade, if that was possible. Of course, as usual, it was full of vague disappointment and corrections on trivial grammatical errors, but more than that, Mingyu, apparently, just didn't understand the topic. To be fair, he reasoned with himself, not even Art History majors understand art history, so really I cant be blamed for my epic failure. Deep down Mingyu knew that this F could easily cost him next year’s scholarship and his high class standing, but for the moment, he just wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened. Like so many of his elders had told him time after time- denial makes the world go round. So, ignoring the quick pace of his heartbeat and the anxiety attack lingering just behind his spine, Mingyu shut his laptop with a decisive whump, and picked up his phone. Wonwoo, as could be expected, answered the call on the first ring. 

“Yeah?” was all Wonwoo said. His voice was muffled and sounded distant from the speaker, which meant he was probably testing out a new prototype for the robotics department, who always outsourced their work to game design students. Their quick reflexes had helped save a lot of expensive equipment. Mingyu himself had managed to salvage a five-thousand dollar faulty drone just last month, much to the relief of, well, everyone. Grants were not easy to come by under normal circumstances, much less so after crashing all of the money given to them in the previous one. 

“What’s the plan for tonight?” Mingyu asked quickly. Scarce had been a Friday without plans since their ragtag band of college students taken Soonyoung and Seokmin (both dance majors) under their wing. Mingyu nearly always declined (getting wasted on Friday always made his weekend feel short and wasted, so he usually opted for a Saturday night outing instead), but in light of recent developments, he was willing to rearrange his priorities. 

“Well Jeonghan wanted to do karaoke but Seokmin and Soonyoung are both indisposed for a date night or some other ridiculous thing, so I voted we all just stay home.”

Mingyu grumbled. Leave it to his friends to be respectable individuals on a night when he wanted just the opposite. “Are you sure you want to stay home? I seem to recall that the student loans office just corrected their mistake from earlier this semester, leaving yours truly a couple hundred richer.”

“Dude, you should be saving that. You don't want to be stuck living exclusively on ramen again like you were last year.” Mingyu grimaced. 

“Pleaseeee?” Mingyu drawled into the phone, drawing out the final vowel childishly. He really didn't want to be stuck at home tonight with the F looming over his shoulder. And besides that, he had never known his friends to turn down a night out, especially if he paid. Plus, he slept better drunk anyway. 

Wonwoo’s sigh crackled into the receiver, and Mingyu smiled victoriously. 

“I’ll text Jeonghan and let him know karaoke is back on. You're buying though.”

“See you soon.” 

—————————————-

Mingyu had clearly made an error in deciding to go out. Date nights apparently meant very little to Soonyoung and Seokmin, because as soon as they had heard that the night out was Mingyu-sponsored, their dinner reservations had vanished like a puff of smoke. None of this was bad, necessarily, but between the two of them, Seokmin and Soonyoung could sure raise a lot of hell. All on Mingyu’s dime, of course. 

They were currently sitting in their third karaoke club of the evening (the first didn’t serve alcohol and the second had kicked them out). This one was grimy and old and looked like every building Mingyu had ever sneered at while passing them on the freeway. The wallpaper was tearing away from its glue in places and all four corners of of the ceiling had what Jeonghan had diagnosed as “Green mold. Not dangerous for the most part, but still not nice.” To be honest, Mingyu wondered how the place was still in business. Between the state of the interior and the smell (which was a combination of what he assumed was really old gym sock and rotten tomatoes), he was sure that the building would in no way pass any sort of health inspection. 

Mingyu watched as Wonwoo wobbled from the bar to the jukebox where Jeonghan and Soonyoung stood, drunkenly arguing over whether to do Celine Dion or Salt N’ Pepa next. Both had very compelling arguments, in Mingyu’s professional opinion, but Wonwoo wasn't having either of those options apparently, because he snatched the mic away from Jeonghan and angrily jabbed his finger into the screen. His choice rang out from the surprisingly high quality speakers. It was 'NSYNC. 

“Hey heyyyy. Bye Bye Bye!” Wonwoo belted the lyrics into the mic, on which he had turned the echo setting all the way up. The reverberations from the last ‘bye’ seemed to amplify themselves and everyone in the bar turned to see the spectacle. No sooner had the song started than Jeonghan and Soonyoung had joined Wonwoo on the stage, posing (crouched), each on either side of him, hands raised into little finger guns, Charlie’s Angels style. Beside Mingyu, Seungcheol, the defacto leader of their group, groaned in embarrassment. Mingyu could only laugh and slap him haphazardly on the back. 

“Aww lighten up grumpy.” Mingyu nudged Seungcheol’s chair with his leg, “It could have been Britney, bitch.”

“I’m not grumpy because it’s pop.” Seungcheol removed he head from his hands and swiveled around to face Mingyu. “I’m grumpy because they could have done Backstreet’s Back, the most legendary American boyband bop of our time, and they chose this,” his hand waved vaguely in the trio’s direction, “instead!”

Mingyu opened his mouth to debate that claim (he himself was an ‘NSYNC supremacist), but before he could process any ideas or words, Seokmin returned from wherever he had been and plopped down beside him, stealing a seat from a woman who looked like she would have rather been anywhere in the world than that bar. 

“So.” Seokmin said blandly, staring at the stage where his boyfriend danced, only barely pulling off the 90s boyband moves. Soonyoung was a great dancer, amazing even, except when he was drunk. 

“Yeah,” Mingyu replied, equally as enthralled with Soonyoung’s choreography. “Its happening.” 

“To be completely honest, I would join them. ‘NSYNC has always done it for me. But right now I am, as the youths say, extremely drunk and I’m not sure I could walk over there.” Seokmin singsonged the last word, turning to face Mingyu, and leaned in. “How does my breath smell?” It didn't smell good.

Mingyu retched a little. “Did you just throw up dude? How much have you had to drink?”

“Yes. Puke and rally my man.” This was code for ‘too much.’

Over Seokmin’s shoulder, Mingyu caught the eye of the bartender and somehow managed to mime that Seokmin A) needed a water and B) was cut off, all without his companion noticing. If Seokmin’s history with alcohol was anything to go by, unless one of them forcibly cut him off, he would keep drinking until he either passed out and they had to carry his 150 pounds of dead-weight all the way home, or until he was in the hospital (it hadn't been from alcohol poisoning, but on his 20th birthday, Seokmin had somehow managed to break his wrist falling out of a tree that no one was sure how he had climbed into in the first place) and neither of those options sounded favorable to Mingyu tonight. Regardless, Mingyu succeeded in forcing some water into Seokmin’s hands. This was only their second bar of the night and it was only 11:30 and Mingyu was paying for everything. He and his wallet would be damned if they wasted this much money just to carry a drunk comrade home at midnight like a bunch of dumb high schoolers. 

“Seokminnie~” Soonyoung slurred from Seokmin’s right, apparently tired of being Wonwoo’s back-up dancer (who was, speaking of, currently attempting a slut drop and completely failing). “Are you hydrating? Wowwwww. That’s weak babe.” 

“Excuse me,” Jeonghan said, also appearing out of nowhere, “but hydration is the key to getting absolutely obliterated and not getting a hangover. I haven't had a hangover in 5 years.”

Soonyoung deadpanned. “Hangovers are half the fun! You get to say ‘I’m never drinking again!’ like a total liar and then do the same thing the next night! Plus, you get drunk faster without hydrating which makes me a cheaper date than you are, Hannie.”

“We all know you're cheaper than me Soonie.”

“Besides that, I think Seokmin is pretty well trashed already Soonyoung.” Seungcheol interjected, glancing pointedly at Seokmin. 

“I guess its your fault when he breaks Mingyu’s bank tonight.” Soonyoung huffed, nevertheless flagging down the bartender to get Seokmin a refill of water. Mingyu sipped his drink innocently. On stage, Wonwoo finished his solo set and bowed to the nonexistent thunderous applause. He handed the mic off to the next karaoke-ers, and wobbled down off the stage toward Mingyu and co. 

“We should-” he said, pausing briefly to slurp down the second half of his drink, “-go dancing.”

Mingyu fake fainted into Seungcheol’s lap just as Jeonghan did a dramatic gasp. “Wonwoo? Dancing!? It’s a Christmas miracle!”

“Shut up. Just because I am not usually a fan of clubs doesn't mean I can't want to dance sometimes.”

“That’s fair. However, I don't think I have spent any amount of time with you when you willingly went dancing. Ever.”

“Mingyu if you say one more word, I’m taking it back.”

Mingyu hopped off his seat animatedly, pulling on his coat and pulling Seungcheol up off his seat in the same motion. “Come on gang! To the clubs we go!”

Jeonghan giggled lightly and wrapped himself around Seungcheol’s arm while Soonyoung and Mingyu helped Seokmin up out of his now slightly permanent place at the bar. Wonwoo closed out Mingyu’s tab and hustled everyone out toward the door.

“To the clubs!” He shouted gleefully, and the rest cheered in assent, voices muffling slightly in the chilly fall air.

 

————————————

 

Mingyu was dreaming about sunflowers when he was woken up by an eardrum shattering alarm. They had been helping him save the bees by planting more sunflowers before that god awful screeching noise had roused him. He groaned loudly, cursing Soonyoung’s habit to leave his school alarms on during the weekend as well. “Turn it off!” 

The alarm kept going.

“God please turn it off.”

The alarm continued alarming. 

“Soonyoung turn that off before I literally kill you.” 

The alarm shut off. 

“I think you're misusing the word ‘literally’ there, although I don’t know Soonyoung so I guess it’s not impossible for you to want to kill him.” Mingyu shot out of bed. That was not Soonyoung. 

On his bed next to him was, unfortunately, one of the most handsome men Mingyu had ever had the misfortune of looking at. Who, Mingyu complained inwardly, looks that good with bed head. If this was a romance novel, Mingyu guessed that the protagonist (himself) would be seeing stars and hearing fa-la-la’s while looking at this man’s face. This was not a romance novel however so Mingyu just opted for an eloquent -

“What the fuck.”

The mystery man laughed loudly and threw himself back on Mingyu’s bed. “I’m guessing you don't remember me. That’s so sad… We had so many deep conversations. I’m Minghao, nice to meet you.” 

“Y-you’re uhh… You… We..” Mingyu struggled, gesturing between himself, the bed they had apparently shared, and the other boy. 

“What?” Minghao tilted his head cutely, “Ohhh. No, we didn't have sex. You wanted to but thats not really my style. You were a little too trashed to consent. Plus you passed out as soon as you opened your door. I had to drag you to bed.”

“So you just stayed?” Mingyu’s voice went a little squeaky thinking about spending the whole night essentially spooning with this guy. The dorm beds were not exactly couple friendly, they were a little on the small side for Mingyu to sleep in by himself, let alone with someone else. It would've had to have been very close quarters. He reddened. 

“Well, yeah. I was pretty drunk too.” Minghao pouted, “I was going to sleep in your roommates bed,” he gestured over to Soonyoung’s empty side of the room, “ but first of all it smells like a gym bag over there and second of all I get cold really easily. You don’t, apparently. You're like a little water heater!” He grinned. 

There was a beat of silence. Mingyu tried to consider where he had gone wrong for god to punish him like this. Where were his friends? Why hadn't they stopped him? Wonwoo probably thought it was funny. Jeonghan and Seungcheol, and Soonyoung and Seokmin had probably split off and gone to be weird elsewhere; the disadvantage of being friends with couples was that you were always stuck if they decided to be couple-y. Mingyu closed his eyes and sighed. 

“So… I’m gonna shower.” Mingyu said, eyes still closed and head tilted toward the ceiling. “Afterwards I’m gonna get breakfast. You're welcome to wait and come with, or you can disappear out of my life forever and we can pretend this never happened.” 

Laughter pealed out of Minghao’s mouth, startling Mingyu’s eyes open. “Oh baby. You're very gentlemanly to invite me along with you but I have other plans. I will definitely see you around though, rest assured. No forgetting allowed.” 

Mingyu looked over to see the other boy stand up out of bed and start pulling on his pants. He wasn't wearing pants all night… the little voice in his head altered him, un-helpfully. Mingyu cleared his throat. “Okay… I’ll see you around then I guess?”

Minghao glanced up at him through his eyelashes, his eyes holding an expression Mingyu could only describe as predatory. “Oh. Definitely.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm terrible at writing an also publishing so I'm only gonna keep writing this if people like it. So please leave comments and appreciation or whatever. I love attention. Anyway thanks to Zhai for putting up with me randomly sending them parts of this at all hours and bothering them when I run out of ideas.


End file.
